State wildlife officials have finally come up with a theory to explain how a giant, highly destructive rodent that’s been terrorizing California might have come from Oregon.
Nutria, a creature with the body of a small beaver, webbed feet like a platypus, and the tail of a rat, reappeared in the state’s wetlands a few years ago, nearly four decades after it was considered eradicated.
California has been battling the rodent ever since, and recent research by wildlife officials suggests the rodent’s sudden return may have been intentional.
The study, released Tuesday by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, found that the state’s nutria populations share a close genetic match with nutria from Oregon. The distance between the states makes it nearly impossible for them to have migrated on their own, according to researchers, which means they were likely transported here intentionally.
Researchers speculate that people may have brought the rodent to California as a natural remedy to battle overgrowing vegetation or simply because of a liking for the species. The exact reason is unclear.
Native to South America, nutria were originally brought to the U.S. in the early 1900s to breed and reproduce for a fur trade that was never successful. The rodent was largely unseen in the state until 2017 when a pregnant female was found in Merced County.
Nutria love the sun, and they reproduce rapidly in places with mild winters, according to wildlife experts. Today, they’re mostly found roaming marshes of the Central Valley, particularly around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. They can eat a quarter of their body weight in vegetation, burrow destructively and ravage waterways and ecosystems. Researchers say the animal is a threat to the state’s agriculture and water supply.
Since 2017, the Department of Fish and Wildlife has removed 7,841 nutria by trapping them or releasing other sterilized nutria back into the wild with tracking devices.
To help Californians rid the state of the pest, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has suggested hunting them and cooking them to eat. One TikTok user even cooked them into tacos.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
